Bangladesh is going to host the 10th Developing-8 (D-8) Summit on April 8 virtually aiming to seek more investment and trade from the member states.
“After the summit, Bangladesh will chair the D-8 for the next two years, creating an opportunity to project Bangladesh’s tremendous economic and development success before the world,” Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told reporters at a virtual press briefing on Wednesday.
He said the summit will help Bangladesh get more trade and attract investment from the D-8 member states.
The foreign minister said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will lead the Bangladesh delegation while her counterparts of the rest seven D-8 member states will head their respective sides at the summit.
D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, also known as Developing-8, consists of eight developing Muslim countries -- Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
At the end of the summit, Turkey, the current chair of the D-8, will hand over the chairmanship to Bangladesh for the next two years.
Dr Momen said at the 10th D-8 Summit, the member states will take a collective policy stand on the
issues related to international economy and trade as well as inter-D8 cooperation on six fields – trade, agriculture and food security, industry and small and medium enterprises, transportation, energy and mineral resources and tourism.
“The D-8 Decennial Roadmap 2020-2030 and Dhaka Declaration 2021 are likely to be adopted to make the D-8 platform more effective and functional for realising full potential of economic cooperation among its member states,” he said.The foreign minister said the hosting of the D-8 Summit will create an opportunity for Bangladesh to extend multilateral diplomacy and bring especial significance as the country is currently celebrating the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the golden jubilee of its independence.
As preparations of holding the D-8 Summit, the 43rd Session of the D8 Commission will be held on April 5-6 and the 19th D8 Council of Ministers on April 7, both virtually.
On the sidelines of the summit, D8 Business Forum and 1st D8 Youth Summit will be held virtually on April 5.
“For the first time, Bangladesh is going to host the D8 Youth Summit,” Dr Momen said, expressing the hope that it will create a bridge among young entrepreneurs of the D-8 member states, including Bangladesh.
Noting that the theme of the summit -- “Partnership for a Transformative World: Harnessing the Power of Youth and Technology” – was chosen emphasising innovative potential of youths, he said it is expected that over 150 youth representatives from the D-8 member states will join the youth summit.
Responding to a query, the foreign minister said they will seek support from all D-8 member states for a durable solution to the Rohingya crisis and discuss the challenges posed by climate change.
On trade issues, he said there is a lot of potential still untapped to boost trade among the D-8 members.
The 10th D-8 Summit was scheduled to take place in Dhaka at the end of May last year but it was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The D-8 was established in 1997 with the objective of improving member states’ position in the global economy, diversify and create new opportunities in the trade relations.
Bangladesh hosted the 2nd D-8 Summit in 1999.
